My insurance companies also inspect my properties and tell me I need to remove trees, fix gutters, they called out a roof for having lichen on it, hand railing in the middle of an open walkway that we needed to install (nothing there before).

The southern/middle part of the country is a great place to invest, not only is it affordable but the landllord laws are very friendly.

Where the manufacturers/builders tend to get frustrated is when they are finding about this last minute and you the customer ends up in the middle of a finger pointing disagreement where you dont know who is right or wrong.  

Don’t focus on the pace of your deals.

Lol, it's in the middle of the desert and there is a wash about 1/4 mile away...heck, there are washes everywhere.

Generally speaking, the buyers in the USD market (foreigners and wealthy and upper middle class Mexicans) want a new or turnkey property and don't want to have to do renovations and they prefer new properties over properties that have been renovated.

I have contacted the most middle man agencies and put our properties on their websites.

Nothing can ruin your day like finding out there's an easement for ingress and egress running through the middle of the property. 

I’m saving as much as I currently can and would be on pace for a decent down payment in about 10 years.

This is where the second issue comes: hyper inflated figures that come from nowhere.Now imagine that the agent knows a developer that's creating a new seaside resort in the middle of nowhere, say in Panama and gets some sort of exclusivity to sell the huge amount of condos to be built to his US clients.